Depository Program Benefits for State Agencies

Arkansas Code Tit. 13, Ch. 2, Subch. 2 designates the Arkansas State Library as the official State Documents Depository for state and local documents, and as the State and Local Government Publications Clearinghouse, which distributes copies of state documents to libraries across the state.

The State Documents Depository provides a central, permanent collection of print and digital state documents accessible by state government and the public at the Arkansas State Library. Local access to these materials is ensured through the State and Local Government Publications Clearinghouse, a related program which distributes copies of state documents received by the State Library to a statewide network of designated state depository libraries.

When state agencies submit materials to the State Documents Depository, the Arkansas State Library is able to:

Organize, preserve, and make documents in print and digital formats available for widespread, sustained use by both state government, academia, and the general public

Digitize historical materials, and make available via our online repository documents which previously existed only in tangible formats

Centralize the distribution of your documents to save your staff time and effort

Provide reference assistance and make appropriate referrals to staff within your agency

Loan materials from the depository collections to your staff to aid their work within your agency

Loan agency documents to members of the public, increasing the availability of past publications long after the authoring agency's own supply is exhausted

Loan publications to those who cannot afford to purchase materials sold by your agency, which allows you to remain responsive to the public's need for government information

Agency documents, in both print and digital format, are the essential element needed for the Arkansas State Library to accomplish its mandate. Agency heads may designate liaisons to serve as a contact between their agency and the State Publications Depository program to ensure that their agency's publications are included within the collection.

The official State Documents Depository accepts both current and historical state publications from agencies.